UCLA In the News April 20, 2018

UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs released a survey showing that Los Angeles residents — especially those younger than 30 — are increasingly dissatisfied with their quality of life. The culprit? The cost of living here, particularly skyrocketing rents and home prices…. “L.A. has always been a place of optimism — that’s what makes this place a magnet,” UCLA lecturer and former L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who led the survey, told The Times. Yet his survey and anecdotal evidence show L.A.’s magnetism is waning. From 2010 to 2015, the Los Angeles suburbs saw their millennial population grow by 8.1%, whereas the city has drawn only a 1.8% increase.

A new report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research estimates that consumption of sodas, sports drinks and other super-sweet beverages among children ages 2 through 11 has continued to rise since 2009 after six straight years of decline…. “I think for the average California resident probably the takeaway is to think carefully about what alternate beverages kids could be having and try to make sure they have access to healthier alternatives,” said UCLA’s Susan Babey.

Shaun Hussain, director of the infantile spasms program at the University of California, Los Angeles, said if the drug is approved he hopes it “will further change attitudes that we need to facilitate this type of research.”

Adam Winkler is a UCLA School of Law professor who has written about gun reform and control for several decades. Winkler says while there has been no significant federal legislation in recent years or since Columbine, the gun control movement was reinvigorated with Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in 2012 at which 20 children were killed by a gunman. “Newtown put the issue of gun control back on the top of the Democratic party’s agenda and now it’s become the most important issue for voters,” Winkler said.

Long periods of sitting have been linked to a variety of health issues, including higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, muscle wasting and premature death. Now, researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles’ Semel Institute and its Center for Cognitive Neuroscience have found that sedentary behavior is a “significant predictor of thinning of the medial temporal lobe.”

Experts caution that cheap corn isn’t the only cause of poor nutrition and that other factors, like technology, are responsible for the low cost of field crops. Still, it’s reasonable to ask: How can subsidies be used to make healthier food options more available? One answer: by making sure that subsidies take into account consumer welfare as well as farmers’ incomes, suggest UCLA Anderson’s Prashant Chintapalli, a Ph.D student, and Christopher S. Tang. In a working paper examining a type of subsidy called “minimum support prices,” or MSPs, the authors suggest that backing a diverse mix of crops — including fruits and vegetables — would give consumers a wider selection and be most effective at raising farmer profits at a lower cost to the government.